Church of the Holy City

Prepare Ye the Way of the LORD

Prepare Ye the Way of the LORD
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete
December 14, 2014

Isaiah 6 John 1:6-34 Psalm 126

In this third week of Advent, we are in a state of preparation for the coming of Jesus. The coming of Jesus is celebrated on Christmas Day. For this church, the coming of Jesus is no less than the coming of God. For we believe that Jesus is God in the flesh. Our Bible readings deal with two appearances of God—one to the prophet Isaiah and the other to the prophet John the Baptist.
In both readings, the idea of purification from sin, or forgiveness of sin accompanies the presence of God. In Isaiah, the prophet feels unclean in the presence of God. Coals are taken from the altar of the temple and the prophet is purified by them. In the remainder of the chapter, the process of our purification is described by correspondences. We are purified, or regenerated, as our selfhood is utterly destroyed. When selfhood is annihilated, our remains of goodness and truth from God are left to shine through our new self. This destruction of self is figured in the destruction of Judah described by Isaiah:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without men,
and the land is utterly desolate,
and the LORD removes men far away,
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land (Isaiah 6:11-12).
In this case, the destruction of the land is good, in that it symbolizes the destruction of ego, selfhood, or proprium. This same passage contains a reference to remains:
And though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump (Isaiah 6:13).
The number ten signifies remains. Notice, too that there is a stump that remains from the oak tree. Here the actual language is to remain. Then we are told that the stump is, “the holy seed.” So after we are purged of selfhood, what remains are all the good things that God has implanted in our soul. This process is captured excellently by the Swedenborgian poet, William Blake. He speaks of,
A false body, an Incrustation over my immortal
Spirit, a Selfhood which must be put off & annihilated away.
To cleanse the Face of my Spirit by Self-examination . . .
As with an Ark and Curtains
Which Jesus rent & now shall wholly purge away with fire’
Till Generation is swallowed up in Regeneration (Milton. 40.35-37; 41.26-28).
This brings us to the New Testament passage from John. I find the theology in John 1 to be striking. It is striking in what is left out. Our passage is about John the Baptist. The Apostle John tells us that John the Baptist’s purpose is to bear witness to the light. That is, John the Baptist is to proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God and that He will baptize with the Holy Spirit. John also makes the memorable statement, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). This line is one of the Bible verses that people use to support the doctrine of the atonement. By calling Jesus the Lamb of God, John the Baptist is suggesting a sacrificial lamb. In the Jewish religion at the time of Jesus, one could sacrifice a lamb to take a person’s sin away. The Apostle Paul, and here John the Baptist are suggesting that Jesus’ death on the cross is such a sacrifice. They claim that when Jesus died on the cross, he took away all the sins of the human race.
But John’s Gospel is unique in this. The other three Gospels give us a different message. They talk about repentance for the forgiveness of sins. They teach that our preparation for Jesus’ coming is to repent. Matthew and Luke repeat the words of Mark,
“Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
who shall prepare thy way;
3 the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight—”
4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins (Mark 1:2-5).
The way we repent is exactly as Blake and Mark put it. We examine ourselves and confess our sins to God. Then we take action to resist doing them in the future. Swedenborg recommends that we only take on one at a time, in order not to become overwhelmed. We will not be perfect on this plane of existence, most likely. But we can claim spiritual progress instead of perfection. And an honest self-appraisal will keep us humble. I think we all have a temptation to want to feel better than others, sometimes. But when we measure ourselves against Infinite Goodness, who is God, we will see that we are all struggling humans shooting for the stars.
As we put off our sins, then more and more the good feelings and the true thoughts that God has gifted us with appear. These are called remains. They are particularly given to us in childhood, when we are in our innocence. In our infancy, angels and God Himself are particularly close to us. They give us feelings of love that stay with us throughout our lives. But the good feelings given us by God and the angels are not only from childhood. They come all through our lives. Swedenborg calls this “implanting” good feelings and true thoughts in our souls. These remains are God’s dwelling place with us. God actually lives in these states of innocence and feelings of love.
God’s dwelling with us is what the incarnation is all about. The name Immanuel means “God with us.” And this Christmas season we reflect on God’s coming to humans on earth. For us living in the age after Easter, Jesus comes to us in our hearts. The coming of Jesus is a coming into our hearts when we put off selfhood and let Jesus in. This putting off of selfhood is done by repentance. As we repent, more and more we see Jesus coming to the waters of our baptism. The power to do this is from Jesus. So in that sense, Jesus does take away the sins of the world. But He does so not by a sacrifice of atonement, but by giving us the power to see, confess, and put away our sins. Then we, like John the Baptist, will say, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

PRAYER

Lord, in this Advent season we eagerly await your coming. We are filled with hope and joy at the thought of Christmas Day, when you came into the world. And as your kingdom is at hand, we prepare with acts of repentance. We pray that you give us the courage to look at ourselves and to see where we may be falling short of your ways and where we depart from your Law. We ask you to shine a light on our souls and illuminate those areas where we need to change. And we pray, too, that you give us the strength to desist from the shortcomings we identify. And we pray that you give us the strength to change those areas of our lives where change is needed. May we do these things in a spirit of love toward you, and with the joy of your imminent coming playing in our minds.

And Lord, we pray for the sick. May they experience the power of your healing love. Fill them with the grace of your healing power. Comfort their family and friends. We pray for the grace of your healing power for all who are ailing in body or soul.